Today's Breakfast - Sweetpotato Chocolate Protein Pancakes

Title tell the story :) just a quick update.

Thoughts About Habits

So lately I've been catching myself doing some bad habits and I've been thinking about what to do with it.

The question regarding the situation must be: "In the end, who or what kind of person would you like to be remembered as?"

Someone told me that you are the sum of all your previous thoughts and actions. So if you only think shit and commit shitty actions, you therefore must be shit.

It's actually pretty simple. I choose to call it Karma. What goes around comes around, right?

So if you commit to changing your habits into habits that you know are good for you, you will not only feel better but you might also suffer the risk of actually BEING a better person.

So I have made myself a little promise. Habits that are keeping me busy and distracting me from the person I want to be are to be written down, and then I can find the healthy habits by contrast.

Bottom line: you narrate your own story and choose who the hero is. Just make conscious decisions that will lead you to victory - not demise.

New Breakfast Recipe!

Just today I had an amazing and easy breakfast, and I wanted to share it with you!

The Egg And Spinach Omelet Experience!

What you need is as follows;
• Time: 10 min total (5min prep - 5min cooking)
• Five egg whites
• One whole omega-3 egg (with the yolk)
• One cup with spinach
• Seasoning: Chilli-powder, Himalaya salt, dried oregano.
• Salsa sauce
• Olive oil (or coco-oil/fat)

First you mix up the egg-whites and omega-3 egg with the seasoning (I prefer a lot of dried chilli-powder to make it spicy!)in a bowl, and preheat the frying pan to below max (mine goes from 1-6 and I use 5 on the oven.

Pour the mix in the pan and fry it up! (remember not to over do it!)

Once the omelet is made solid you flip it around and get the fried part up. You then take the spinach and arrange it around the top of the omelet and pretend its a pizza with green pepperoni's all over it for a while before pouring some salsa sauce over it.

Wrap the pizza over itself two times so you end up with a quarter-sized omelet.

It´s breakfast time!!!

*Spinach tip: I usually buy a bag of washed and ready-to-use spinach and trow them right in the freezer! You heard me. It´s genius, believe me. Before a bag of spinach would last maybe 3-4 days in the fridge, now it lasts for weeks. Genius I told you!

Enjoy this delicious breakfast and remember that muscles are built in the kitchen, not the gym!

(next time I´ll make sure I take a picture before I eat it all up!)


 Until next time!
— Bjørnar

Workout B Update

caSo yeah, the title says it all!

Here´s the B-side of the workout plan:

We start of doing the same dynamic stretches as we do before workout A.

• 12 x Rotational Overhead Press

• 10 x Spidermans

• 9m - Hip Walks

• 12 x Sloooow Wood Chops (6 each side)

• 9m - Frankenstein

Actual workout:

• 2x8-10 — Reverse Fly´s

• 2 x 6-8 — Side Lying External Rotation

• 2 x 4-6 — Russian Twists (each side)

• 2 x 4-6 — Lateral Bridges (each side)

• 2 x 6-8 — Swissball Passes (hurts like a mo**erfu**er!! But getting HUGE results FAST!)

• 3 x 6-8 — Unilateral Deadlift (each leg)

After the workout it´s time for the Static Post-workout Stretches, and I guess my sore body would feel ten times worse if I didn´t do these stretches so they are highly recommended! Also; Yoga is a great addition to static stretches that will help you get your desired physique! remember that you don´t want to be one of those hunched over apes you always see doing bicep-curls and training their chest (probably to bang on when seeing other apes in their territory).

Stretches are as follows:

• Butterfly

• TFL/ITB stretches

• Three Point Stretch

• Seated Rotational Stretch

• IR Broomstick Stretch

Can´t wait to hit the gym again next Monday!

Until Next time!

— Bjørnar

Quick Update

Hi again!

Yesterday was a really good workout-session with Sondre and Andrew. Even though its only the preliminary workouts we are doing now, I still feel it somewhat in my upper back.  I guess I can thank the dips for that. I now know that doing the preliminary-workouts with the stretches are going to get me much further than if I jumped right on lifting heavy compound lifts without the proper foundation.

So consider doing this yourself! I know its easy to get overly enthusiastic and wanting that ripped body straight away, but you know, life is a work in progress and so it needs to be done step-by-step. There is no need to rush things. You have to think about the end-results, and I believe you get further with a better foundation than not. 

Also, the benefits of training with one or two other guys or girls who have more or less the same starting-point (strength and technique) and who have the same outcome in mind is amazing. Working out is SO much easier. I give team-workouts two thumbs up!

So yeah, team up with someone and take it step by step! You´ll get there soon enough!

Until next time!

— Bjørnar

Today´s Workout Scedule

Recently me and my support-team have done some evaluation on ourselves, finding out our weaknesses and strenghts, and getting a better picture on how our current fundation looks.

Now, everyone who has built a house (or even with lego´s) know you can´t get far without the proper foundation. This means that instead of jumping right on to the heavy weights I´m going to do some correctional workouts first.

Todays workout (with targeting zones/muscles):

Dynamic Stretches (prior actual workout):

• Rotational Overhead Press — x12 (obliques, lats)

• Spiderman (come on, who doesn´t want to be spiderman?!) — x 10, (hip flexors, quads, adductors)

• Hip Walk´s — 9 metres (glutes)

• Slow Wood Chop´s — x12 (obliques, lower back)

• Frankenstein´s — 9 metres (hamstrings)

Workout A:

• Reverse Push-ups — 3 x 6-8 (upper back, biceps)

• Dips — 3 x 6-8 (chest, shoulders, triceps)

• Unanchored Sit-ups — 2 x 6-8 (abdominals, hip flexors)

• Swissball Passes — 2 x 6-8 (abdominals, hip flexors)

• Plank — 2 x 20-30 sec (TVA)

• Platedrags — 2 x 8-10 on each leg (abduction)

Static Post-Workout Stretches:

• Butterfly (adductors)

• TFL / ITB -stretch (outer thigh)

• Three  Point Stretch (quads, hip flexors)

• Seated Rotational Stretch (obliques, lower back)

• IR Broomstick Stretch (internal rotators)

(workouts and stretches provided by the Scrawny to Brawny book)

Now I just need to prepare my workout-shakes with the new Hydrolyzed proteins and BCAA proteins and get ready :)

Realy looking forward to getting training as a new healthy habit!

Until next time!

— Bjørnar

And So It Begins — Again

Sooooo here´s what´s up lately in a quick summary since the post I actually wrote five minutes ago didn´t get saved, and then my iPad thought it be cool to shut down the blogger-app.

Lately I have spent some time putting together a support-team. The support team concists of guys who all want the same outcome. A healthy relationship when it comes to training and gaining muscle-mass. We are currently having weekly meetings where we share non-worout goals as well as our weight-gain goals and its a huge benefit to have someone else with similar goals as you to hold you accountable and to support you to through the process. Highly recommended!

This weekend I also tried out some different protein suplements to help me reach my desired weight. I must admit that being a milk-protein allergic and testing out these kinds of suplements are REALLY scary, because I know the potential negaitve effects of the wrong types of protein. But to my great relief everything went well. I tried out something called hydrolyzed whey proteins, which actually is milk-proteins(!!!) that have gone through a chemical process that breaks down the protein to very small pieces. By breaking down these proteins the body can absorb it alot quicker than your average protein-supplements, and the additional bonus with hydrolyzed proteins is that its non-allergic (even to us with heavy milk-protein allergies)!

The other product I tried is something called BCAA-Pro 5000. This is also proteins that are quickly absorbed by the body and are also safe for us with milk allergies. Bonus is that it tastes really nice!

(link to BCAA-Pro 5000: http://www.nutraplanet.com/product/san/bcaa-pro-5000-100-servings.html )

I have also taken my "Before" pictures and will post them up here soon :)

Until next time!

- Bjørnar

New-found Inspiration and Motivation!

As the personification of the term ectomorph, I sometimes find it hard to find good inspriation and motivation from real life athletes. Most articles and motivational fitness blogs show pictures of big bulky guys with shoulders about five times as large as the waist, and to be honest those pictures and articles don't resonate very well with me.



I can appreciate and take some inspiration of course, but there is something deep inside me that tells me that that type of body structure is not for my body type (and I really don't want to become THAT huge anyways). I've been searching the web for an athlete or fitness model who I can look up to and get inspiration from, but its hard as I wanted to find someone who has the body shape that looks like what I believe my body CAN look like if I give it my best!

I think I found one such inspiration, and he has just the type of physique that I want to have and can realisticly imagine having!

His name is Frank Medrano, and check out his total bodyweight workout underneath! Now thats a killer!!

Enjoy

If you have another ecto-athlete or fitness model that you look up to for inspiration and motivation, feel free to share it in the comments below. I would love to see what inspires you!

Now I'm going to clean up the entire kitchen and get ready for the food-preporation that Im doing this evening.

Until next time!

Bjørnar

A Quick Update

And so it begins!

Today me and my girlfriend went out shopping for my first whole week food preparation! Breakfast, lunch and dinner, and one super shake. It is actually just for three days, but it's for me and my girl both so it's six days total of cooking, so I get the feeling of making for the whole week. Feels great having all those different healthy foods in the fridge and I am really looking forward to making it all tomorrow.

Will definitely try to make a blog post about it tomorrow night. We'll just have to see how I feel when I am done with it all! ;)

The grosery list is as follows:

• 36 eggs

• 6 red bell peppers

• 3 small red onions

• 2 big bags of spinach

• 3 avocados

• 1 package fresh redcurrant berries

• 1 package with fresh strawberries

• 2 packages with fresh blueberries

• 1.75 kg beef strips

• 2 broccolies

• 6 medium-sized sweet potatoes

• 1 bottle white wine vinegar

• 1 bag of pecans, cashews and macadamia each

• 2 bags of frozen mixed berries

• 1 carton of rice milk (couldn't find unsweetened almond milk which is a bit thicker and easier to use in the recipes)

• 4 hermetic cans of tuna

• and a brand spanking new BIG frying pan! :)

we also went to the Food Festival and bought some really good all natural apple juice from Norway! Delikeable! 

Also there are some ingredients that I will be using in the meals that I already had at home, like different marinades, spices, ecologic coconut oil and some others I cant remember in a hurry.

Shopping list is based on a pdf called Scrawny To Brawny Nutrition which you can find here: http://www.scrawnytobrawny.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/The-Ultimate-Muscle-Meal-Guide.pdf

Until next time. 
Bjørnar

Thoughts About Fear

So lately I have been feeling some fear-based thoughts about the upcoming challenge. Some really old limiting beliefs and worrying thoughts. To put it simply; I feel like there's a ton of things that needs to be in order before I start the project (and even during the four months) and I fear being dissapointed with myself for not being able to complete the challenge.

I thought that the best way to handle this would be to face my fears and the ego-voice in my head, and write them down to get clarification and control over the situation.

Here Are My Fears — According To My Stupid Ego Inner Voice:

#1 - MONEY: Almost every worrying thought I have about something, almost always comes down to MONEY. Fuck! I hate being a slave to capitalism and money, constantly having this small voice in the back of my head saying that I could never afford this or that. But even though I hate being like this, sometimes I fall back into old ways, and I get all insecure and worrying about it. This time its about the cost of the challenge. My ego keeps bitching about "How can I afford going through it?" and "this seems too hard, just drop it!". Can't help to believe that the little voice might be into something.. All the food that I need to consume is going to be immense and the costs will follow, and then there is costs for the training center etc.. I am worryed that I'll fucking bankrupt myself during this challenge, and that I'll be back in dept-world and having to worry about money in a lot of other ways.

#2 - TIME: I mean, I have a job with unregular shifts (some in the evening and some early) plus other time-consuming activities (strangely I can't remember any activities that I currently have that are very time-consuming! Stupid ego-voice!!) so how will I ever be able to even find the time to actually DO this challenge?? I need time for the studying of the program so I understand WHY I'm doing what I'm doing. I need time for the actual workouts. And the hardest of them all, I need time to EAT and prepare food. 

And not surprisingly - the biggest one is:

#3 - FOOD: This is most definitivly my biggest hold-back-point right now. Just the thoughts about paying for all that food, preparing all that food, storing all that food and then eating all that food makes me want to back down. Thoughts like "what about when I go on vacation, how will I be able to eat as much every day?" and other similar thoughts keep coming up.

While writing this post, I actually came up with some answers (or solutions) that IMMEDIATELY turned off the worrying and limiting thought process connected to these three "fears".

Here Are My Solutions — According To My Smart Concious Inner Voice:

#1 - MONEY: Well, I only have so much money - and thats OK! I just stretch my limits as far as I am comfortable to go while still having enough money to save some. Just do the best with what I have! Sure, the results might be a lot better if I had a more stable financial situation* (* read: filthy ritch), but the results I will get will be a lot better than doing nothing at all!

#2 - TIME: When I was writing about the money aspect of the challenge, I tried as hard as I could to come up with some time consuming activities that I currently possess. I found none. STOP BEING LAZY! Thats the only thing I can say. Just fucking do it. When it comes to preparing food and going to the gym these are just routines that will become easier over time. Of course it will be hard, and I guess especially in the beginning, but who said it was going to be easy?

#3 - FOOD: There are currently millions and millions of people starving in this world, and my biggest concern at the moment is about how I can eat as much as possible. That made me a little sick actually. I realize that I need to focus at the tast at hand and whats important to me. This challenge is for ME. I CHOOSE to take it. I WILL take it. But I will take it in my own pace and tempo. I will not jump from 2-3 meals a day to 6-8 just like that. I cant see how that would be healthy. I need to start somewhere (over the rainbow) and keep going from there. Start eating more than I did before is a good place to start. This is a challenge - NOT a competition!

Life Is A Work In Progress - Take It Step By Step.

This is exactly what I will do. Step by step, and try not to overdo anything. The goal is to successfully complete the whole four months without giving up, and I have to give my self a fighting chance by not making it too hard on my self! 

Now I REALLY need to go get something to eat! So hungry!!

Until next time!

Bjørnar

A Quick Update

The Most Important Path To Victory Is The First Step."

So I've had a short meeting with one of my best friends, and a guy who happens to be the guy I hoped would assist me in making the support team and I pitched him my idea and my goals.

Guess what? Your best friends are the ones you can count on! So Mr. Navid Siamaki will be joining our team shortly.

I'm so excited with getting started. Just had to share.

Until next time

Bjørnar

To Be The Man That Defies The Laws Of Physics

I was searching the web for some motivation, when it hit me!


 


His progress is so inspiring. Can't wait to get the same results. Only need to study up some and prepare (starting to eat more, so that the nutrition aspect of the challenge does't get too hard).

Until next time!
Bjørnar

A Path Found

"Do or do not, there is no try."

So I've resently poundered over what I want to have as a long term project. A challenge that will prove to me that I can do anything I set my mind to and a goal that I can grow from.

Last weekend at the 31th of August and the first of September there was a huge two-day conference in Oslo called Morten Hake Summit. This was the fourth anual summit, and  it's the biggest conference of its kind in northern Europe. It focuses on self development, a better communication between men and women and becoming a better verison of yourself. There we got to meet great minds like Steve Pavlina, Jamie Smart and tons more interesting speakers who shared their knowledge with us. Being the event director and because I've been working with the event the last three years, I got to hang around backstage with the speakers and also after the actual event, and so I got additional inspiration and ideas as to what I need to do next. I decided that I need to do something that I have been wanting to do for a long time, but never actually got around to do because I made excuses for myself. Now its time to change this limiting behaviour and get around and actually doing something good for myself.

From Cub to Full Grown Bear.

I'm currently twenty-six years old and I weigh the same as I did ten years ago. I am 1.83 tall (6 foot) and weigh around 56 kg. That makes me a tall and fairly slim guy, and I've always wanted to look and feel like a bigger guy. Previously in my life's journey I would feel like my physique was holding me back from the things that I wanted to do. I used to have limiting beliefs like "I can never get a good looking and smart girl, because who would like someone who's as thin as me?" and "I will never be one of the cool guys because I will never be as good looking as them". Several years later and much more experience with women and hanging around the "cool guys" I of course know better. But this does not remove the fact that I am a tall and skinny fellow! Now, does this bother or hinder me in any way? To be honest I don't believe it does. I have a lovely girlfriend who is both beautiful and much smarter than me, I get to work with the things I like and I have awesome open-minded concious friends.

So why am I whining about this then??

Well. All of the above does not change the fact that I would LIKE to be grow some more muscle and gain a healthier lifestyle. Only because I know it will serve me good in the long run and because I think it will make me feel even better.

A Path Found

"So what is this path, and why don't you just pick up a Mens Health Magazine eat some more and hit the gym" you ask?

Been there, done that. The fact is that I've desperately tried many different approaches and acted on sound advice from personal trainers and articles on the internet, with no results to show for it.

So a couple of years ago I came over a book called "Scrawny to Brawny - The Complete Way to Gaining Muscle the Natural Way". Here I got introduced to terms like hardgainer, hypertrophy-challenged and most importantly ectomorph. Ectomorph is one of the three different somatotypes (A method for classifying different body types based on spesific physical characteristics). This book is not only a workout program but also a dietary plan that is set up for four months, and is specifically made for guys who has a hard time gaining muscle mass.

I'm done being a little cub, and its now time to become a full grown bear.

An Inviation For Those Like Me

I know that this program is very hard, and to be honest I'm a bit worried that I will only disappoint myself if I don't make it through it. So my plan is to invite other guys in my community that have a challenge with gaining muscle mass and want to do something about it into a mastermind group. This mastermind group will function like a support group where we push and support each other, share thoughts and progress, make meals together and get through it like a group.

I have already got hold on some guys that want to participate and help us. We will have coaches that can help us in the hard times, personal trainers with experience from the program and a guy that already did the S2B program and will help us with the nutrition aspect of it.

And all of this I present to you as a present, free of charge!

So if you live in Oslo, and want to be a part of it, leave me a message in the comments underneath this post, and I will add you to our online group.

Also; if you DON'T live in Oslo, but want to go through this challenge yourself I HIGHLY suggest you buy a copy of the book on amazon and let me know in the comments, Ill add you too to the online group so you can follow our progress and share your own insight through this journey. The more the merrier

I will start the program in October, so you still have some time to prepare.

Until next time!

Bjørnar

 

Trying To Do Things The Right Way.

"If you are going to do something, do it right."

So I've been thinking and wondering for quite some time now about whether or not I should start up with blogging again. Previously I used to write a self development blog for the norwegian audience, and I generated quite a lot of traffic for such a small blog. I noticed after the months went by that I was starting to be more and more concerned about the traffic I generated and I would get really bummed out when the scores went down. I was finding myself in a state of constantly thinking about posting high value post that everybody would love and re-share with their friends that I totally lost track of why I was writing that blog in the first place!

I think that too many blog authors (and maybe online people in general) try and put on a face that they think their audience will like, rather than just writing whatever they have on their mind and not giving a fuck about whether or not it generates traffic. That's in my minds eye the equivalent to being phony, false, untrue, full of shit, name it what ever you'd like. And I noticed that I myself was starting to fall into that category! I didn't even stand for most of my posts anymore, and thats not really right now is it?

So why am I writing again?

Well, this is what I've been trying to figure out. To do or not to do, that is the question. After some careful consideration I found out that I had to create some new "rules of guidance" so I don't fall into that same track again. I figured out that if I don't share any posts myself and if I only write whatever is in my heart I don't care whether it becomes "popular" or not. I will continue to stay true to myself, and hopefully if someone wants to read my blog and likes it, than I know I didn't sell out and they like it for who I am, rather than who they want me to be.

"To Do Or Not To Do, There Is No Try."

So thats what Im doing. Pouring out my heart for myself, and if you happen to read this and you think its seems alright, than thats good. If not? Well fuck it, that's alright too! No pressure. So no more try, I'm only gonna do what feels right.

Bjørnar

The Journey Begins — An Introduction

"Every Journey Begins With A Single Step, But You Can Never Finish If You Don't Start."

Once upon a time, there was a relatively young bear who was heading out on a Journey...

Wait a second, let's back up some and start over again.

First of all, I would like to say "Hello" and welcome you to my blog - A Bear's Journey - and give a quick introduction on myself and what this blog is all about. 

A Bear's Journey is a simple blog about the least simple thing I know - Life. To be more precise it's more than less about my own life, but also about the lives that swirl around and interact with my own from time to time.

My attempt here is to be as transparent as possible while sharing thoughts and concerns and ideas as they are, without too much makeup on top. In other words, if you thought this was another beauty blog, you couldn't be more wrong. But none the less - I hope you enjoy this.

Second, what's all this 'Bear' talk about anyways? Bears don't write!

To explain to you why I chose to name my blog 'A Bear's Journey' I must first introduce myself properly by name. My name is Bjørnar Kristensen, and I'm a twenty-six year old guy from Norway. Bjørnar is actually a really old name, and has its roots from the old scandinavian languages and means "bear's" in plural. Now I think its fair to say that since I've (obviously) chosen to write this blog in english, rather than my native language Norwegian, that my choice of name gives a better way of communicating. Let's face it - I've never met a non-norwegian speaking person who could come even close to pronouncing my name correctly, so the choice was easy. Bear :)

Now that I'm writing about it, I actually had to laugh some, as my resemblance to a bear falls short  right after my name.

I'm more thin than big. I'm not exactly furry, and I'm probably less intimidating than a below average sized chihuahua. Although I can be heard for miles if I chose to and I do really enjoy fish!

Now thag we've established who I am and that I'm infact NOT really a bear, what will I be presenting you in terms of subjects and topics to read about and why do I even have this blog in the first place?

As for why, I guess I am sort of "stuck" in a place right now, and I'm wanting to see some real positive change in my life and I would like to document it. As for topics the list is long, but the main topics I know I'll be writing about is self improvement for guys and documenting my own personal struggles to getting closer to my goals. So I will focus on my up's and down's, thoughts and ideas that I have in my daily life, but I hope that along this journey a more foreseeable path or niche will show itself. 

For now this is my journey, but you are more than welcome to tag along if you want to.

Bjørnar