Journey To Gains

Waking up at 4am to lift & hike Runyon Canyon so I could have the rest of the day to watch Ohio State football & work confirmed something that becomes more evident with each passing year...
Your life is never going to be 1000% balanced.
If you want to be better than average at something, you’re never going to have the perfect amount of time to work, sleep, hang out with family, go out with friends, workout, etc.
Some thing(s) have to take a back seat at given times.
Maybe it’s getting an hour less sleep to have more time for priorities.
Or not working as often to be a better friend/spend more time with family.
Or not going out as often so you have more time to workout & make your health a focus.
The perfect way to be perfectly average is to try to prioritize everything at once.
While that’s the ideal situation - being uber balanced & great in all areas of life...
You simply don’t have enough time in the day.
Instead of spreading yourself too thin, figure out what your priorities are right now. Maybe it is more family time. Or building a business. Or getting in shape.
When you become really damn good & more efficient at something, you can start prioritizing other aspects of life while not losing much progress (if any) on your previous focuses.
But dial in one a few different things. Make some sacrifices. It’s worth it.
For me, Sure...getting more sleep last night might be have been the most ideal thing for me. But there are other priorities for the day. And that’s life.
Much love & happy Saturday ♥️💪🏽

Happy Friday featuring an arm andddd leg flex ( ) You ain’t real if you don’t hit legs 💪🏽🤷‍♂️
Seriously though - leg workouts (and having developed leg muscles) burn more calories than just focusing on your upper body.
If you want to not only look proportionate but be able to lose fat easier, start hitting your legs just as hard (if not harder) than your upper body 🙏🏽

I got to this point from eating no carbs, doing lotsa cardio, checking the scale every 4 hours, comparing myself to the “perfect” bodies on popular fitness IG accounts, and never having desserts or alcohol. Oh yeah, and it only took 5 weeks to build muscle & get abs.

S**E, S**E, and S**E again.

Real answer: I got to this point from....

1. Prioritizing lifting & trying to get better than I was previously.

2. Not restricting any foods - just prioritizing protein & veggies while being conscious of calories. Aka carbs are fine to eat.

3. Putting more of an emphasis on how I look & feel more than the scale. Reason: I want to look a certain way. I don’t really care what number the scale tells me I am. It’s just a number. Sure, it’s a way to measure progress but far from being everythang.

4. Not taking this stuff too serious. Still enjoying life. Knowing that one (or two) beers on a Thursday night won’t make me lose all gains/progress made.

5. Understanding that it’s a long game. This stuff doesn’t happen overnight. Or in a month. And if it did? Then the goal is still to maintaining being a healthy human & look good forever. You feel me?

6. Focusing on myself & what I can control. What I see someone else look like? Or how strong they are? Or how much more food they can eat & stay lean? That doesn’t help me one bit.

I only share allllll of this because I want what’s best for you.

It’s easy to hear something from a mainstream source about fitnessy stuff & think it’s the ‘end all, be all’

Or see someone else that looks good & feel like you’re a giant turd.

Or that you’re never going to get bigger, stronger, or lose fat because it seems like it’s taking forever.
Nail down the basics, keep grinding, and make this stuff for a part of your life forever.

You only get better with age. Fine wine out here. You feel me?

*if you’re a real one, and you’re going to get better with age, comment “I feel you”* 😉

Throwback to doing dirty things to this Donut Ice Cream Sandwich last summer in San Diego 🍦😏🍩

This entire trip, last May, was filled with ice cream, rum & diet cokes, and getting sunburnt.

And I don’t regret a damn thing.

See, I was in Cali for homie’s 25th birthday. There was a group of 10 of us (that went to high school together) that got a house right on the ocean.

Those 3 days, fitness goals took a backseat to the experience.

Every meal, I ate really good “unhealthy” food, got intoxicated multiple nights, and had a blast with the homies.

And that’s completely okay. I got back to the grind when I got home.

Look, if you have fitness goals you want to accomplish, it’s not a sin to enjoy yourself with some bomb ass food & lotsa drinks.

And the more you beat yourself up for it, the worse off you’ll be - now & in the future when a similar experience arises.

Take it for what it is.

You’re enjoying the moment (whatever it entails). And you’ll get back to working out & eating “healthy” after.

You know that (insert experience) won’t go on forever. So enjoy it while you’re doing it.

Hell, I know I was ready to start working out & eating veggies again after three straight days of that action 😂

Happy Thursday! I'm going to start posting to both my personal page & business page.

I want people that don't follow/like my business page to still have the potential to see my posts :)

I want to continue working on growing this page & operating more off of here (getting away from posting AS much on my personal FB page).

Anyways, wanted to give you an update since you were one of the awesome humans that liked my page a while back.

Thank you & I hope your 2019 is off to a great start!

Best,
Patrick

What’s worse: Someone who does half reps of squats OR someone that doesn’t like Chipotle? 🧐🌯

🌯For, it’s someone that doesn’t like Chipotle. I love Chipotle. Chipotle is my life.

👏Besides...if you’re attempting to squat, I applaud you.

👉However, the next step with squatting is to make sure your form is on point.

💪A big part of that is getting deep enough to actually work all of your leg muscles.

➡️Lower the weight you’re using, work on your flexibility, work up a little bit more before squatting, and get deeper on your squats homie.

😝Happy Squat Saturday!

🏈And by Squat Saturday, I mean I’m lifting arms & squatting down on to the couch while I work & watch football 😉

You can eat more food and lose fat.

One of my good friends saw that these two different girls were making a lot of progress and were looking more "toned/defined/lean".

Sooo she complimented them and separately asked them what they were doing to see progress.

Both of their responses: "Really, I've just been eating less".

I don't like their response at all.

The article (linked below) details why I don't like their response and a better way to go about losing fat.

**Hint Hint** You CAN actually eat more food and lose fat.

https://www.journeytogains.com/blog/2018/10/8/eat-more-food-to-lose-fat

Eat More Food To Lose Fat Earlier this week I had good friend of mine reach out and wanted me to confirm that she’s not crazy. Not crazy as in ‘she doesn’t like Chipotle’ crazy. Rather, she wanted to make sure that she wasn’t crazy for not liking the answer she received, by two different people, when she compliment...

Selfie Saturday? Lol Here’s a quick update on my own personal lifting/physique progress⤵️

🌮Currently trying to add size and strength while staying decently lean.

😁Andddd I’m pretty happy with how I’m looking and where I’m currently at with my strength.

I’m weighing around 182-183lbs. Holding onto the abs pretty well. 👌

💪Gradually getting a little bit stronger each week with a few main movements: Deadlifts, Front Squats, and Dumbbell Incline Bench Press.

⤵️Below are the weight/reps for each of those movements when I got started & where I’m at now (~1 month into this gaining phase) ⤵️

➡️Deadlifts: Started out hitting 340lbs for sets of 6 reps. Just hit 355lbs for sets of 7 reps.

➡️Front Squats: Started out hitting 235lbs for sets of 6. Knocked out 245lbs for sets of 7 this week.

➡️Dumbbell Incline Press: Started with doing sets of 6 reps with 85lbs and just hit sets of 7 reps with 95lbs on Thursday.

🤜I’m not focused (at all) on hitting a specific weight at any point in time, rather just insanely glued in on getting at least one rep better every workout.

👉Gradually inching up and getting 1% better each day adds up homies.

🍷🍕Lastly, with nutrition, I’ve been enjoying some fun foods on a semi regular basis but most of the time my meals are higher protein with a lot of veggies 👌

I hope you are having a wonderful, fall Saturday!

I’m knocking out a lift & then heading down to my old college to hang out for the day with some of my good friends that I went to college with.

Should make for a good day👌

Cheers to Gains, pizza, football, and pals. 💪🍕🏈🥃

I want to share my favorite story from college. I apologize for the swearing BUT this actually happened😂😅 ⤵️⤵️⤵️

“Crucial As f**k". Those were the words my professor saw when he abruptly said: "Can we turn back and look at the middle of page 23...Am I reading that correctly?"

Again...,This actually happened.

Junior year of college.

In the process of completing “the most important/challenging” semester in the College of Business, known as "The Cluster".

It's a semester of regular classwork paired w/ two giant group projects with multiple presentations along the way.

You have to complete 'The Cluster' in order to receive your degree. And it's difficult to get in to - they only open up a select few classes.

On my group's first presentation, we waited until the very last second and whipped up 35 pages of BS on our selected topic - the Cruise Line industry.

As we were putting together this project the weekend before it was due, we had multiple instances where motivation was non-existent.

Because of that, we decided to get the juices flowing by throwing in goofy, non-serious language in our large report.

If we reached a point where we stalled out on what to write, we would just jot down the first thing that came to mind.

You know, things like....

“The food on cruises is good as hell.”

Or “Carnival doesn’t have s**t on Royal Caribbean’s drink package”.
..Obviously with the intent of going back through and editing it out with better, more appropriate wording.

And we did. Except one line that I will never forget.

“Having extra space for guests on cruise ships is crucial as f**k.”

Our group collectively pooped our pants when we realized the sentence we forgot to edit.

Somehow we all still passed the class and successfully got our degrees.

What's this have to do with me enjoying ?

Simple.

Just like having space on a cruise ship is crucial as f**k, so is my weekly Wednesday glass of wine.

Each of us have something, that might not be the best for fitness goals, that is crucial as f**k to happiness.

Maybe it’s ice cream or pizza once per week. Or having drinks with pals on Friday.

Whatever it is, if it's crucial to your (mental) well being, it can and should fit into your life without interfering with your fitness goals 👌🍷

If you judge everything based on social media, you’d think everyone was insanely happy, insanely hot, and living the perfect life. All the time.

Obviously, we know that’s not the case.

I love that people celebrate the cool things they’re doing, how they’re looking, and the highlights of their life.

Seriously, I’m pumped when I see other humans doing cool stuff.

Again, that’s not real life, all the time, though.

We all have struggles & things that are far from perfect in life.

And while maybe they shouldn’t be celebrated, it’s important to know that it’s okay to not be perfect.

Especially compared to what you see on social media.

This photo was from when I hiked Camelback Mountain in Arizona.

The photo I ended up posting (on the right) is dope. I look swole. Cool background. It’s nice.

I remember seeing the photo on the left & thinking “oh wow I look terrible”.

Obviously on the right I look a lot better. But on the left, I don’t look bad.

I was just comparing the photo to what other people look like. And what they look like when they post on social media.

Long story short, judging your life based on what you see on IG mostly leads to feeling like you suck.

When in reality, we all suck a little bit. Even if we don’t advertise it. 😂

I get it - not everyone loves to work out.

To keep it real with you, there are days that I’d much rather stay posted on my couch watching football than get up to workout.

Oh wait, that’s me. Right now.

Working out isn’t always fun and you can’t always fit in a work out at the most opportune times.

However, these are things that normally help give you some juice to make your work outs happen.

To quickly touch on each....

1️⃣When you have a plan AKA you know what exercises to do and which days to go to the gym, you can more easily stay committed to working out.

2️⃣Goals. Losing fat, getting abs, squatting 225lbs. Whatever it is, having something that you’re going for keeps you coming back for more.

3️⃣Small wins also keep you going. Obviously the large goals are what you ultimately are gunning for. But any small improvement you make each week, you should be pumped!

4️⃣Listen to Trap Music when you’re working out and you’ll make gains. Enough said.

5️⃣Seflies are a major key. Lmao no seriously. Seeing the progress your body is making every 2-4 weeks are important. If you can see physical changes from the gym, you’ll want to keep going.

6️⃣Doing it with someone. Even though I have a winking emoji next to this, I’m not talking about that kind of “doing it”. I meant having someone there with you will keep you energized. Buttttt take this one how you want.
Okay Happy Saturday. Getting up to workout & get hype to some trap music in about 40 minutes. Maybe I’ll take a selfie afterwards as well?

The term "snack" can mean three different things:

1. A small amount of food that you can eat quickly and ideally relatively nutritious, that will keep you satisfied until your next large meal.

2. Someone you think is se # # /fine/good looking. "She's looking like a whole snack!"

3. An assortment of snacky foods that quickly rack up enough calories to be considered a large meal. All from only 4 small cookies, a handful of skittles, and a small bag of chips.

Even if it's not in one sitting where you eat cookies, skittles, and a bag of chips, I think a lot of humans find themselves in the third category of "snack".

Obviously I'm kidding. Those three meanings are not objectively what "snacks" and "snacking" have to be.

😉Except Number Two. I'll take the compliment that I'm "looking like a whole snack" any day of the week.

If you're a habitual snacker, that's not a bad thing.

However, if you consistently snack on higher calorie items that leave you unsatisfied and continuing to eat more, thennnn it could be an area where you need to make a change.

If your day normally consists of "snacking" on the items on the left.

You know...Those items that leave you unsatisfied and needing more to fill that "mid-day hunger" or "pre-dinner munchies".

If that's you, then try implementing some of the lower calorie, more satisfying snacks on the right.

You don't have to go 100% away from your usual skittles, cookies, and chips.

Try starting to eat cut up cucumbers instead of your chips. Or strawberries instead of the cookies.

Obviously, if you want to go zero to 100% real quick and flip the way you normally snack, I'm all for it. I think that's dope.

But even those small changes can make a big difference.

Eating only salads and getting rid of “fun” foods, in order to get in shape, is scary & unrealistic. Never eating pizza again? That’s not a life I want to live.

🍕Obviously there are changes that need to be made to what you eat/drink in order to see progress. However, most of the time, it’s not just one specific thing (like eating too much pizza) that is holding you back.

🍕It’s a combination of a lot of thangs. Soda, 500 calories coffees, dumping crap tons of oil on every food you make, eating fried food alllll the time, using endless ranch, anddd eating pizza.

🍕Even if you make one small tweak to one of these, that can make a big difference.

🍕I think opting for the items/foods on the right in the chart above are all things that you should implement and do most of the time.

🍕However, just like I am with pizza, there might be a non negotiable thing that you’re never going to give up.

🍕That’s okay. But just know that you don’t have to neglect the food you like in order to see progress.

🍕You can start by making some of these tweaks to what you’re doing now.

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☕️ 🍩Coffee lovers unite & order actual dessert & not dessert coffee drinks ☕️🍩
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Okay, everyone knows Starbucks' newest creation - The Triple Double Eskimo Vanilla Macchiato Latte - just came out & you want to try it.
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I'm right there with you. That drink ^^^ sounds marvelous (😉). However, if you're trying to burn fat & you're watching calories, trying to mimic that drink(with the actual ingredients) when you're making your coffee probably isn't your best idea.
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Even if you're not making a wannabe Starbucks special, being conscious of what you're putting in your coffee is important.
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Every packet of sugar has ~6 grams of carbs & every single serve creamer had ~3 grams of carbs & 2 grams of fat. Just like anything else, everything moderation.
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Unless you're JR Smith (basketball player), who puts 8 sugars & 8 creams in his coffee. Roughly 432 calories 😂😅🙃
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Ideally, when dieting, you would try very strongly not to drink your calories. Similarly, if you have more flexibility with you calories, wouldn't you much rather have an actual dessert compared to an overly sweet coffee concoction.
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Lastly, I would give black coffee a(nother) try. It's a little bit of an acquired taste but once you enjoy it, you're HOOKED. Andddd black coffee has no calories. Winning.
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Which dessert/snack do you normally enjoy alongside your black coffee? 😜