Should You Purchase a Watch?

     I know this subject may be really off topic for my type of blog, but this is something that really interests me and can play a big role in your lives as well.  Watches have been something I really love to look at and admire for the last few years.  They can range from $5 to millions of dollars for one time piece.  So let's answer the question of whether or not you should purchase a watch or not.
     As a kid I had many watches that were made for kids that would break pretty easily and were all digital.  As a kid watches with super hero's and cartoon characters were interesting, as they would be to any young child.  Over the years I never really noticed watches until a few years back I started noticing watches more and more and started looking more for motivation at first at Rolex's, as this was the only luxury watch brand I knew of.  I later started hearing of many others including AP (Audemars Piguet) and Omega.  If you know anything about any of these watches the price ranges start around $3-5,000 for omega and Rolex and over $10,000 for AP, so these were out of the picture right away.  I started looking at cheaper watches that would catch my eye, and one day I found the one I am wearing now on the internet and found a shop in the mall that was selling them.  I bought it after christmas with the money I got for christmas about 3-4 years ago I can't quite remember.  The first week after buying it I would wear it all day everyday.  But then after the first week I kind of forgot about it and didn't really like to wear it out that much, I can't remember why.  But about a year and a half later I started wearing it everyday, but since I lost weight I had to get some of the links taken off to fit me better.  Over the last 2 years I wear the watch everyday everywhere I go, I love the way it looks and feels and always keeps accurate time, and is solar powered, which means the sunlight is able to charge it.
Should you buy a watch?
     Although I started without even really wearing my watch, my experience owning one has been amazing!  My watch has been very dependable, looks great, and best of all I didn't have to spend over $1,000, believe it or not, not even $500.  I've had random people comment good things about the watch.  Not only does a watch tell time, but each watch says something about you, as each watch is different, from the band, to bezel.  Every watch is unique and finding a watch that you love that says something about you is very enjoyable.  In my opinion you should definitely buy a watch if you are going to wear it.
     You don't have to spend thousands to have a nice watch, but you also don't want to spend under $150.  From what I have noticed on watches under $150 the watches don't seem the best quality.  I'm not saying all watches under $150 are bad, but just from what I've seen they don't seem the best, although there might be some that are good quality.  If you can find one that cheap thats good quality and you love it, then buy it right away! Although I only have one watch I spent just over $200, which in my opinion is a steal compared to the other watches I was looking at that compared to it!

Closing thoughts.
     Owning a watch can really build character and add class to your style.  If you have never owned a watch before I would defiantly recommend my watch (Citizen Men's BM6734-55E Eco-Drive Two-Tone Stainless Steel Watch) to anyone looking to purchase their first watch.  You can find it in the recommended resources section of my blog.  If you guys own watches already I would love to hear what kind and your thoughts and experience on your watch in the comments below!



Go out, live life to the fullest,

Brian     

How to Read 50 Pages of any Book in One Day. (How I do it and How You Can Too)

     If you are reading this you probably know I am big on reading.  I talk about how I read over 35 books last year in a couple of my posts.  Why and how do I read that much?  First off I know I can always learn more and learn from others, so for me reading is feeding my brain.  Second I get to know each of the author, about their life, their story, and how they overcame challenges.
Make reading a must.
     This step might sound simple but its very true not just for reading but for anything you want to do in life, but here you must making reading a must if you are striving to start reading or read more.  When I first started reading at the beginning of last year I was probably the slowest reader you could have ever meet, I would read every word before moving on to the next instead of skimming and reading a few words at one time.  Now I still have times where I catch myself reading word for word, but once I catch it I start reading at my faster pace again.  Many people reading this can probably speed read, and could easily read 50 pages or more a day, but for those of you who are like I was a year ago reading word for word this next paragraph is for you. (If you already can speed read you can skip this next paragraph).
     Lets talk about how you can read faster today!  This may be sounding to good to be true but it is really effective in reading faster.  This trick I learned from Tim Ferris, author of The Four Hour Work Week.  He takes a pencil and first says to makes lines on the pages cutting off the first 2 and last 2 words of each line as your peripheral vision will see and your mind will be able to read these words.  Then he says to use a pen or pencil to trace where you are reading and to glide it under each line you are reading. (As the picture to the side shows). Which at first sounds kinda challenging, and it is, for the first page or 2, but after it becomes really easy.  
    Now that you have the art of speed reading down, or at least are able to read faster you now have all you need to be able to read 50 pages or even more a day.  Keep in mind I used to read word for word and sometimes even mouth the words as I would read them, which is a bad habit in itself, but all I had to do was catch myself doing it and stop whenever I did mouth out the words I was reading, in order to quit the habit.  Reading 50 pages a day should be effortless if you can overcome these two obstacles, those are the two things that really helped me to read 50 pages each day.
Closing thoughts.
      Reading should be a big part in everyones life, its fun, relaxing, and can really help in any area of life you want to become better in.  Even if your not reading 50 pages a day 10 pages before bed each night can be a great way to start out if you don't read that much (just don't fall aspen while reading and let the book slam on your face).  Go find a good book, you never know what will influence you and change your life!

Go out, live life to the fullest,

Brian

What Did Doing My 5-Day Video Challenge Do For Me?

     What is the 5-Day video challenge you may be asking yourself?  If you haven't recently seen on my youtube channel (Ganifit) I have posted videos over the last 5 days for my 5-day video challenge. My first video of the challenge was less than 50 seconds, because it was that hard for me to talk to a camera for longer than a minute, but the next day I almost doubled my time!  Which even though less than 2 minutes of video doesn't sound like a lot for me it was.  It's amazing how fast something can improve if you just set your mind to it.  Literally less than a week and I have come from less than one minute to 2 videos over 3 minutes and one just under 3!
     Even at first I made some short 15 second videos for Instagram, and even that was a little challenging because I always found myself too much in my head and trying not to talk too fast.  But when your in your head, just like giving a presentation at school you seem to talk at 100 miles per hour without realizing it.  What I had to learn to do was slow myself down when talking, even though I prob still do speed up at times, I'm definitely better than when I started which is what I'm going to be talking about today in this blog post.
     Would you be able to agree most things seem hard until you actually do it?  I know for most things I'm that way.  Making the videos is exactly that way for me, it seems harder than it is, even though at first it is pretty hard, especially for a naturally shy person like me who already has trouble talking, much less putting myself out on Youtube where anyone could view my videos.  At first, at least for me I would go blank really fast, so had to use a mini script of what I should talk about but have each point in my head before hand so I wasn't read a few points on a piece of paper, instead I was able to memorize each point then expand on what each point meant.  But now I literally just make the title for the video before hand then that alone gives me something to talk about for at least a couple minutes.  Which as I said before, 15 seconds was hard even when thinking of a list believe it or not.  But compare that to now where I am able to write the name I am going to use as the video name, and can make a video in one or 2 tries is unbelievable for me to be able to accomplish!
     Have you ever heard the expression "be yourself"?  Well they aren't lying when they say to be yourself.  In my experience on camera at first I was trying to talk all loud which I'm usually a quiet person, but then I thought to myself "maybe being myself would be better since with being myself the people watching my videos can know I'm authentic and see I'm confident in that with myself", so they will feel more in touch and connect better with me through the camera.  Although it may not be the most captivating for entertainment thats not what my videos are for anyways, and I know the people who want to hear what I am sharing will watch the videos and that it can help them and connect with them and thats what matters to me.  This applies to any area of life, relationships, jobs, sports, pretty much anything you do people want to see the real you.  The worst thing we can do is try to impress people without impressing ourselves.  So if you have a fear of doing something because you feel you aren't "good enough", remember you are good enough to do whatever it is you want to do, just be 100% you and people will see, feel, and appreciate the authentic you!

Go out, live life to the fullest,

Brian

Why I Work Out 3 Times a Week.

     We can either over-do or not do enough of something.  Along my journey this was the gym.  At first I would barely ever go and even stopped going after a while.  I remember starting back up then going at least 5 days a week with some muscle gain but not as much as I should have been gaining for going everyday.  I started to wonder to myself "is there a way I can change something to gain and sustain muscle?"  So I did some research and what I found is I was overworking my muscles, and didn't give them enough time to recover through the week.  I mean think about it, if it takes a minimum of 48 hours for muscle to recover and you work biceps one day then the next you do back exercises, you are also working you biceps which wouldn't be giving the muscle enough time to recover.
     So how can working out 3 times a week be good to maintain and grow muscle when lots of guys are in the gym everyday and are growing massive amounts of muscle?  First off if you love going to the gym everyday and you wish to gain muscle that way its your choice, and the way to do it is to strictly focus on a certain muscle each day.  But if you plan on saving time and sustaining muscle if you don't work out for a few days, then working out 3 days a week is what works best for me at least. This helps me save time by not being in the gym everyday and still workout my whole body.  This also depends on the body type you want, if you are going to look like Arnold then by all means work out everyday on a certain muscle each day.  But in this post I'm going to talk about the importance in my life for working out 3 times a week.
     Myself I am going for the shredded super hero physique so I don't need to be training and eating like a body builder.  I even found over the last couple weeks since I have been doing my drop sets that I have been able to move up weight very quickly, on some workouts 5 lb a week.  Mind you my 3 days are 1) Arms which includes biceps, triceps, and shoulders. 2) Legs (self explanatory) 3) Back and chest, which also work out biceps triceps and shoulder but those are the secondary muscles working on back and chest day.  Doing it this way If you are to work out Monday Wednesday Friday you will be able to easily sustain and build muscle as the time to recover will be perfect since it takes a minimum of 48 hours for muscles to recover, if you do arms (Monday) legs (Wednesday) and back and chest (Friday) as I state above.  This will make the least amount of time for recovery over the weekend which is still over 48 hours,  if you are comfortable doing it as, arms, legs, back+chest then legs instead of going back to arms right away that is up to you for making sure you have enough rest time between arms and back and chest.  But for me I find doing arms, legs, chest and back, then back to arms works the best for me for adding weight an building muscle, at least over the last few weeks, however this could change over time.
     Thanks for reading this short blog post.  If you can take away one thing from this, although I hope you take away many things and implement them into your life, it's don't over-do something if you don't have to to get amazing results.

Go out, live life to the fullest,

Brian

My Simple And Easy Steak Recipe.

     I don't talk about food or recipes that much on my blog, but food and cooking is really something that interests me, even though I'm not the best cook I will admit.  Is it possible to make an amazing steak with only 4 other ingredients?  I would have to say it is!
     How did I find this recipe?  I literally got bored of having the same and most simple steak recipe that I knew how to make on the stove, which consisted only of oil salt and pepper.  Although this was good enough for me I decided to add something else not knowing if it would be good or not one time when I was making a ribeye.  Luckily for me it came out amazing, literally the best steak I have ever tasted in my entire life.  The second I tasted it I knew I had to cook the rest of the steak for my parents the same way!  This one ingredient is a MUST HAVE if you are going to make steak.  It is garlic, if you don't have garlic use garlic powder although I highly recommend the garlic cloves over the garlic powder you can use either.  The taste of the garlic from the clove is a lot better in my opinion and gives a classy feel to the steak, and the best part is biting into a piece of the garlic as you are eating, there is no other flavor like it!
What are my favorite steaks to choose from?
     There are two main stores I find the best for steak.  When I say the best, I mean THE BEST!  The best part is the prices aren't even that expensive.  Both I can get 2 cuts of ribeye (over 1 pound) for just over $16.  Yes $16 that will feed 2 people for dinner!  My first choice is Trader Joes as they have plenty of wonderful food for decent prices which makes side dishes along with the steak cheap whether it be filet mignon or ribeye, are priced great even if you are on a budget, the downside for my location is parking as the store is always packed, which is the exact reason I drove to the next store.  My second choice is Whole Foods which does have the better steak, but prices can be higher here for side dishes which is the only downside.  Although for now on if I buy steak I'm choosing Whole Foods as the parking is ALOT easier, and the ribeye I bought for just over $16 was as tender as filet mignon!  My steak of choice is the filet, as to me it has a better taste and is always tender, but ribeye is the next best thing and for the price for flavor and tenderness the ribeye is a great choice, and the filet is more of a treat for me, because we usually buy ribeye to save money and have a great steak.
Side dishes I like to make with it.
     You may be asking yourself, "what can I make with the steak?'  Although there are a bunch of different side dishes you can make with it there are three foods really stand out on the plate with the steak, and they take almost no work to make!  The first 2 can just be placed in the microwave for a few minutes which can be going while you cook the steak.  First off is sweet potato, I cannot stress enough how good this will go with any steak, as is almost dessert all by itself.  All you of is poke a couple holes in it with a fork, and put it in the microwave for the setting labeled "baked potato", depending on the size of the sweet potato you may want to take it out 30 seconds early, as overcooking can make some spots hard to eat.  The second is broccoli, I use bags that are already frozen that you can just place in the microwave for however long it says (less than 7-8 minutes at the most I believe).  The last is avocado which you literally just have to cut in half the chop up however you like!
Desserts.
     I wasn't originally going to add deserts into this blog as I usually don't eat them with the steak, but why not have them in here anyways?  Everyone loves dessert.  My favorite are molten lava cakes, which if you have never had them are a must try!  They are chocolate cake with a chocolate melted center.  The second which I have shown here is dark chocolate,  my preference is anything above 80%, dark chocolate is also known to be able to help relax muscles in your body which is a big plus to eating it.  My third choice is chocolate ice cream made from coconut milk, which you can purchase from Trader Joes.  The ice cream at first tastes like chocolate then after a second the coconut flavor kicks in!  If you are a coconut and chocolate lover you will love this!
Would I recommend eating out or cooking meals for yourself?
     Cooking meals can be a big savings from going out to eat, as meals from restaurants with sirloin can cost as much as filet mignon for 2 at home.  The best part about cooking at home is you get to choose the piece of meat from the store you like best and not just given whatever meat they give you, even though restaurants are usually really good about the meat the choose, I love having the choice of meat I cook.  The type of restaurant may vary for prices, the restaurant chains like Outback are fairly priced but still cost a ton more than cooking at home.  The higher class places may have better steaks and other cuts of meat than the normal restaurant chains but can cost a minimum of $35 for one dish! And thats minimum for one person, even at a place like Outback you can spend $15 a person easy with a sirloin or even a burger and a pop.  For sure cooking at home for me is a must, as prices are cheaper, I get to enjoy the process of cooking my own food and playing "chef" at home, and creating new ideas for food to make is beyond enjoyable, but I still do like to go out to eat sometimes also.  
     The funny thing about this is that I used to hate cooking until I started cooking the steak the way I do now.  So even if you hate cooking at home right now, I know that with the simple and easy recipes I will bring to you will help make cooking effortless and enjoyable, and just as good as any upscale restaurant!  I also have a salmon recipe I will bring to you in my next cooking post, which is just as simple as this steak recipe!

You Must Love Yourself Before Anyone Else can Love You

     Have you ever heard the expression, "you must love yourself first to find love"?  This isn't just some "Woo Woo Shit" that some hippie made up.  Its absolutely true.  Think about it for a second, if you don't love yourself how can you spread love to those around you?  How can they feel you love yourself?  Here I'll talk about ways to love yourself more so that you can spread and attract love in your life, weather it be better family and friend relationships, finding the love of your life, or spreading love to random strangers.
Do kind things for people.
     Random acts of kindness never hurt.  In fact, they are not only good for the other person but help you feel good about yourself.  Even if at first or before you do it it seems like a waste of time because you feel you are receiving nothing, in the end you always feel better about it, and on the inside you know you helped someone, whether it be big or small you will still feel good about whatever you did, if its holding a door for someone in a wheelchair or helping at a homeless shelter for a week.  I just started reading the book "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz, and in the second chapter, towards the end, he states "It's better to give before you receive, and never keep score". and also states by filling your actions with generosity, the rewards will follow.
     Let's keep in mind the small thing of holding the door for someone handicap.  It may be something small, but your not trying to take from this person.  Thats what makes you feel good on the inside and about yourself.  You helped someone without trying to take from them or be greedy, you did something out of the kindness of your heart that made their day.  Which subconsciously you know how much that helped them and are able to feel happy about yourself for doing something good for someone else.
How to love yourself right now.
    There are many ways to love yourself right now.  Here I'm going to share with you what works for me to love myself more everyday.  This will also make you more confident in who you are.  We all idolize people, or at least are brought up to.  everything we are surrounded by on television or in any media for that matter is showing us what we don't have.  In this time and day it can be hard to have confidence in yourself without an awakening.  So lets get into how to love and have confidence in yourself.
    The first thing that helped, kind of goes hand in hand with another blog post where I wrote about gratitude.  We are, as I said brought up in a world where we are surrounded by things we don't have in the media, and are told to focus on that, while nobody ever talks about what you have and will always have with you ever second of your life.  That is your life.  Now I understand right now if you have insecurities it may be hard to overcome them, as we all have them, big or small.  Some of them we can change some of them we can't.  Here I'm going to talk about the ones we can change, because once you fix them the ones you can't change can go away as well.
     What insecurities can you fix and how?  The easiest ways are by sculpting the body you want, as you are the artist of your life.  Being overweight is probably one of the biggest things I see holding people back from loving themselves.  Even when I was overweight I remember I waled with less confidence than I do now.  Maybe you look down at he ground when you walk to avoid eye contact with a stranger.  If your an introvert like me this is very common.  I used to always keep my eyes or head down.  This is not only bad for your neck but also lowers confidence.  I now walk with my eyes straight forward, and yes if people are around I still feel awkward if they walk past but with your head up and eyes forward you can walk with confidence and a smile, and if the people walking by is awkward for you you can keep your eyes straight ahead to avoid eye contact but still keep your head up.  
     The thing you can practice right now is to focus on 3 things physically or mentally about yourself that you love.  It could be your eyes, hair, how your good in a certain subject, even the way you blink, whatever it is find 3 things to love about yourself and write them down.  The next day add something else and continue each day.  If you can find something new everyday to love about yourself, soon there will be infinite love for yourself and others will feel that off of you, which can also help lift their state.
Final thoughts.
    Before you attract the great, like minded people in your life you must first love yourself and have full confidence in everything you do.  Not only will it help for the people in your life but also in how big your goals are and if you can actually accomplish them.  Loving yourself will make it easier for you to also forget the ones that tell you that you can't do something, because having the love for yourself means you have full trust that whatever you want to do you can do if you put yourself up to it.

Go out, live life to the fullest,

Brian

What Works Best for Gaining Muscle in the Gym for me.

     Since I've started working out I've always been seeking new ways to gain muscle as fast as possible for me.  Some ways had fast success some slow or even none.  Let me start off by saying what works for me may be totally different than what will work for you.  I, myself rarely drink protein shakes to bring in more protein as I find it more fun to eat foods I enjoy than drink one of the shakes, that to me don't taste good, and also feels kind of like cheating for protein for 30 grams for one drink.  They don't keep me full as long as I like, and find myself an hour later having a full meal anyways.  If you love drinking proteins shakes more power to you as you can bring in more protein faster.
     Over about the last 6-7 months I've been trying different techniques for building muscle while lifting.  I've done 2 workouts for each upper body muscle every time I work on my upper body, and have been alternating reps and sets but keeping the same workouts.  Legs on the other hand I focus on squats, lunges, leg press, leg curl, hip adductor, and calves, as most of these are compound exercises working 2 or more muscles at the same time and as some work the same muscles I only do these workouts for legs.
What works the best and worst for gaining muscle for me?
     As I stated in the first paragraph my way of gaining muscle fast may work great for some and may work slow or not at all for others, it just depends on your body, as all of us are built different.  Over the past 6-7 months I have done 3 different styles of testing and seeing which gained the most muscle for me.  I have done 4 set of 8 reps on medium-high weights, 3 sets of 10 reps for medium weights and drop sets (where you start off at a high weight and drop the weight after a certain number of reps).  Keep in mind for each other these the only thing that changed was the reps and sets, all the workouts/exercises stay the same.  I started off doing drop sets for the first test of this for the first couple months, then 4 sets of 8 reps, and finally 3 sets of 10 reps.  During the first few moths I saw what I consider fast growth for myself while doing drop sets and 4 sets of 8 reps.  The 3 sets of 10 reps on the other hand is where I noticed little to no growth in muscle. Since I have been trying the 3 sets of 10 reps lately for the last couple months I decided to switch it up again since I wasn't seeing any result.  I decided to start back up on drop sets of 24 reps and dropping the weight down after every 6 reps, starting at a very heavy weight, which is whatever is heavy for you.  Don't be scared if you are already feeling the burn after only dropping the weight twice.
     I recommend doing these exercises with machines or dumbbells as it is easier and faster to drop weight for every 6 reps.  This way you are able to focus all of your time to the reps and time under tension instead of taking time to take off weights.  If you work out with a spotter this may not be an issue as they can take weights off the bar for you very quickly so you aren't using time to get up and take them off.  But assuming you are like me and work out alone I would stay to the machines and dumbbells. 
If you really want to use this to the best of your ability for massive gains, doing time under tension is the way to go.  The only thing about this is you will want to start with a lower weight than going full out heavy weight for the first set, since you will be lowering the weights for 4 seconds and bringing them up very fast (or as fast as you can).  The time under tension will make the lighter weights feel even more heavy.  The way I currently do it is I start with heavy weight and after the first 12 reps, then when I'm on the 12 reps of light weight I do time under tension, which makes the last 12 reps very challenging even though the weigh is so light.
Closing thoughts
     I'm glad I was able to switch things up in the gym, I was able to find what works for me and what doesn't.  Even though it may have been a couple months of a plateau, most people would see it as a waste of time, but ultimately its not, I was able to learn from this experience and bring this blog post to you guys, to give you some insight and ideas on what you might want to do if you are experiencing plateaus in the gym as well.  Give it a try see how it works for you!  I would love to hear your feedback.

Go out, live life to the fullest,

Brian