Swapping Bloody Marys for Barbells

I love working out on the weekend and I love Bloody Marys (which I've always found strange because I really dislike tomato yet I digress). When I was living in Melbourne there was nothing better than shaking off a hangover at Borsch Vodka & Tears with the usual suspects (you know who you are) with an awesome Bloody Mary, bacon, eggs and pickles (they do the best pickles...) and then kicking back for a few hours before sweating out the remaining alcohol in the gym.. ahh.... Enough with the reminiscing, my current regime doesn't really allow for me to have the prerequisite binge drinking nights than demand Bloody Marys and lucky too, you can't get one that's even remotely close to the awesomeness of those made in Melbourne, so instead I have to make do with just enjoying weekend gym workouts. Why is the gym so much better on a weekend? Simply because there's not the endless douche parade that comes with the post-business day gym crowd. There's no tools flexing in the mirrors or girls walking around the weights area in push-up bras that just add to the wait for benches or squat rack or whatever that people are spending more time talking on than utilising. If it wasn't for the chance that my ears could be assaulted by Bieber at any moment, I wouldn't need to wear headphones at the gym on weekends.

The Workout
This was the first workout B since restarting StrongLifts and I was eager to get back to deadlifts. You may notice that StrongLifts says you should only do one set of deadlifts, however I'm still making sure that my form is okay in the mirrors so I need a couple of warmup sets before I get to my max lifts. In any case, I was reasonably happy with 105kg until I saw a girl doing 80kg deadlifts just before I left (marry me??).

EXERCISE	Set #1	Set #2	Set #3	Set #4	Set #5
Squat	85kgx5	90kgx5	95kgx5	95kgx5	95kgx5
Incline Press	40kgx5	42kgx5	42kgx5	45kgx5	45kgx5
Deadlift	60kgx10	85kgx5	105kgx5	XX	XX
Chin-ups	12	10	6	XX	XX
Dumbbell Shrug	22.5kgx10	25kgx10	25kgx10	XX	XX

Overall though a good workout, definitely need to get my pull-ups stronger because I'm seriously lacking compared to my other lifts. I must have done something right though because I'm in serious pain as I write this.

Supplements
Pre-workout: Musclepharm Assault: I used this because I've been trying to finish some old tubs that have been lying around and it's always been decent and gets me amped up to get out of the apartment and to the gym (which I definitely needed after getting sidetracked playing DC Universe Online before going - whoops).
Intra-workout: Scivation Xtend (watermelon) - tastes good enough and better than others, but meh; it's no grape.
Protein:  Dymatize Elite Chocolate - good macros but not as good as the Muscle FX stuff but I was in the mood for chocolate.

Music
During this workout I listened to Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile (Halo 14), the left disk and then the right disk. Somewhat different to my normal gym listening but eh, it seemed appropriate and got me through.
I also heard a remix of a Cure song that may or may not have been Bloodflowers being played through the Finance First speakers which I thought was an odd choice.

The below song isn't from The Fragile but I stumbled onto it while looking for a good video clip from the album to post and now I can't stop listening to it, it's eerily beautiful. Enjoy.

Steak Night

At last weekend's steak night I told the boys that I wanted to stuff cheese into something the following weekend and while I didn't achieve too much last weekend, I did stick to my word and made the following:

Cheese Stuffed Capsicum

Thank you Irene from WA for a recipe for the diet conscious and which is suitable for those who are vegetarians:

Ingredients

125g Ricotta Cheese
125g Low Fat Cottage Cheese
5 Medium Sized Ripe Tomatoes (or 1 x 425g Can of Tomatoes)
1 Teaspoon Dried Basil
1 Teaspoon Chopped Parsley
2 Spring Onions
4 Large Green (or Red) Well Shaped Firm Capsicums
Salt and Pepper
2 Egg Whites

Method

1. Remove a slice of capsicum from the stalk end (retain the cap/slice), scrape out seeds and white membranes & wash & drain well.
2. Peel and finely chop tomatoes (drain well if using canned).
3. Beat together the two cheeses and when well mixed stir in chopped tomatoes.
4. Add basil, parsley, spring onions & salt and pepper into mixture.
5. Beat egg whites until very stiff and fold lightly through the mixture.
6. Arrange peppers in a shallow baking tray.
7. Fill each of the capsicums with the mixture & replace slick/cap lightly.
8. Pour 2 or 3 tablespoons of water (or, if using canned tomatoes the juice from the can) into the base of the tray.
9. Bake in moderate to hot oven for approximately 35 minutes.
10. Serve hot.

I made the above recipe with only two alterations, I split the mixture between three capsicums instead of four and I added two rashers of bacon which I fried up and diced to the mixture. In any case, they tasted pretty awesome and I'd definitely make them again. See below for the end result pictures of my creations and then next to my 550 gram steak.

Fresh from the oven

Civilized Sunday Steaks

It doesn't get much better than this

In any case, it's damn late and to my chagrin I'm writing this much later than I wanted; mainly due to DC Universe Online. However, this does mark the week point for this blog which is a good sign, now just to keep it going. First up though, sleep.